January 2011 Archive for Barn Buzz

Barn Buzz is where Anna-Lisa documents her life as a dairy farmer and editor for Dairy Today and Top Producer. Get real time updates from Anna-Lisa by following her on Twitter, or subscribing to her on Facebook.

This morning at the Top Producer Seminar, I had the chance to moderate a workshop by Troy and Stacy Hadrick about using social media to tell the story of agriculture. During the seminar discussion a few producers had questions and concerns about blogging. Beginning a blog can be a daunting task, but it can also present several rewards from a marketing standpoint, a brand awareness standpoint and even from a community relations perspective.

Here are my opnions about the questions that you asked today during the social media workshop:

What am I going to write about?

What you do may seem like old hat to you, but for people not on your farms agriculture production methods are fascinating. To a child that has never set foot in a corn field, the size of a combine is majestic. The day to day happenings on your farm are great content for a blog.

How much information about my family is appropriate?

Determining how much personal information you include on your blog is entirely up to you. Some farm bloggers don’t include their family members in their posts. There are other farm bloggers that write about their children and that may scare you, but you can refer to them as names other than their own. The “little cowboy”, “big brother”, you get the idea.

Is it really beneficial for everyone to know the ins and outs of my farm?

Many producers are involved in areas of agriculture that aren’t very well understood by the general public. In fact a lady in the social media workshop at Top Producer Seminar asked this very question. She was concerned because she wasn’t sure that her farm would be well received in the community and online if there was transparency between the farm and the community. Look at it this way. We live in small town America and likely if what happens on your farm is unknown, the community will create the known for you. Don’t you want to know what people are saying? I promise you that the rumors are more detrimental to the image of your farm than the truth. It is your choice, but personally I would rather be involved in the conversation than to have my community believing false things about my farm.

Blogging might be or might not be for you, maybe its just not for you right now and that is completely ok. However, if you decide to start a blog about your farm, I would love to read it! You can email me the link. If you have questions or need help starting a blog or figuring out how to use social media please feel free to reach out and ask us for help! Farm Journal would love to help you embrace social media and the benefits it has for your farms!